Cuba Demands Visa for Prisoner’s Wife

By Circles Robinson

Gerardo Hernandez and his wife Adriana Perez just prior to his arrest for conspiracy to commit espionage in June 1998. The couple has not seen each other since.
Gerardo Hernandez and his wife Adriana Perez just prior to his arrest for conspiracy to commit espionage in June 1998. The couple has not seen each other since.

HAVANA TIMES, Sept. 1 – The Cuban government sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon demanding that the United States grant a humanitarian visa to Adriana Perez, wife of Gerardo Hernandez, one of the Cuban Five, reported IPS.

The Cubans have been imprisoned in the US for nearly 11 years after being convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and other charges.  Perez has been constantly denied the right to visit her husband.

The Cuban government maintains that the Cuban Five are held as political prisoners and that their activities did not jeopardize US National Security as alleged by the prosecution.

Havana notes that the Cuban Five only monitored violent Cuban-exile groups based in South Florida known for plotting terrorist attacks against Cuba and its interests.

The Department of State has refused Pérez a visa alleging that she is a threat to national security.

For more on the Cuban Five case see: Cuban Five: Wrong Guys in Jail